20 January 2016 as reported by Channel 9 News, Perth, Western Australia, Australia http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/01/20/19/02/food-re...
20 January 2016 as reported by Channel 9 News, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/01/20/19/02/food-receipt-helps-nab-wa-asbestos-dumper
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/01/20/19/02/food-receipt-helps-nab-wa-asbestos-dumper
A fast food receipt has led to a Perth man being fined $10,000 for illegally dumping fencing containing asbestos at Korung National Park.
Samuel Michael Gossage, 27, was identified after Department of Environment regulation investigators found a fast food receipt at the dumping site and cross-checked the time of purchase with the eatery's drive-through security cameras. Investigators also checked footage from an onsite concealed camera that captured the incident in June last year.
Gossage was fined this week in Armadale Magistrates Court and was also ordered to pay $1284 in clean-up costs and $660 in court costs.
Lou's comment: Excellent detective work by Department of Environment and following up with heavy fines. Hopefully this will be the start of more dumpers who illegally dispose of asbestos waste being caught, fined and possible jail sentences if appropriate! These dumpers are exposing many innocent people to asbestos fibres when they break down and become airborne. They also have no regard for the health of the general public nor their own health. They think that they will get away with the dumping and save expensive costs of disposing the asbestos waste legally.
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21 January 2016, Liverpool, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-20/asbestos-contamination-fears-at-serbian-club-in-liverpool/7102404
Liverpool community fears asbestos contamination from illegal landfill.
Last year, the ABC reported the EPA was investigating up to 15 sites that could be affected by the contaminated fill, which could have come from Liverpool Council's soil storage facility, the Western Depot at Kemps Creek.
Liverpool councillors passed a motion at an extraordinary meeting in November 2015 to provide medical checks for staff who believe they may have been affected by the contaminated fill.
Mr Milovanovic said he was shocked that there was asbestos in the area.
He said the club had not mowed its lawns for more than four months due to asbestos fears.
"There were rumours of asbestos in the area, so we were concerned," Mr Milovanovic said.
He said the club had suffered financially due to the contamination because they were planning to hold a community festival at the club at the end of January.
"We will have to hold it on the concrete which means we can't fit as many people as before," he said.
"Now we're a little bit afraid if it was contaminated that we may have unknowingly exposed kids.
"On a weekly basis we get between 100 to 150 people, we also host functions for multicultural communities that surround the club, which has between 500 to 600 people."
Mr Milovanovic said he needed support from Liverpool Council and local authorities.
"We can't afford the expensive tests, to test the soil or land around it," he said.
Liverpool Council CEO Carl Wulff said in a statement to the ABC that the asbestos near the Serbian club was dumped illegally.
"The illegally dumped material, located on the corner of Stante Close and Hall Circuit, will be removed immediately after Sydney Water works are completed," Mr Wulff said.
"There is no danger to guests or employees of the club, as the material is covered, not airborne and will be removed by experts."
"In relation to each site under investigation, the EPA has directed the council to make them safe, communicate with any neighbours and remediate them," an EPA spokesperson said.
Liverpool Councillor Peter Ristevski said there were potentially more areas of soil surrounding the club which could be contaminated.
"It's just not one area, they're actually surrounded by soil that could or could not be contaminated," he said.
"They definitely need answers now, if there is a contaminated section there, I'm sure it is contaminated as well."
Cr Ristevski said the council needed to be more proactive to manage the overall asbestos issue.
"The reports I've seen so far leave me a little bit disturbed that the council is treating this in a laissez faire manner, that they don't see it as a hazard," he said.
"The problem is once you disturb asbestos and it does become airborne, that's when it becomes highly, highly dangerous. It raises issues of public safety."
Mr Robson, who has been campaigning for asbestos testing and awareness for years, said solid forms of asbestos are dangerous once they are disturbed.
"The CEO or possibly the council are in denial about this potential safety hazard to the public," he said.
"It's fine to say it's there in solid form but the minute you disturb it, then it becomes highly dangerous.
"If it's in soil and you put a lawnmower over the top of it, it becomes airborne."
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19 Jan 2016 - Victoria, Australia
http://www.starweekly.com.au/…/make-asbestos-removal-easier/
A Gisborne woman, who has been fighting mesothelioma for more than a decade, believes home renovators shouldn’t have to pay to have asbestos professionally removed and disposed. Under current laws, people who find the deadly building material in their homes face expensive removal and disposal costs.
Lou Williams, despite her own ill health, has spent many years fighting on behalf of others battling lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure. She says disposal costs should be heavily subsidised. ‘‘Until that happens, we will have more and more people exposed, including their families,’’ Mrs Williams said. In 1985, her father, who worked in the building industry, was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma. He died six months later, aged 54.
In 2003, Mrs Williams, then 47, was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma. In 2009, she was diagnosed also with pleural mesothelioma. Large tumours were removed and she underwent chemotherapy before starting on a new drug early last year.
While asbestos was completely outlawed in 2003, Mrs Williams said it continued to wreak a devastating toll.
And those most at risk were the growing army of do-it-yourself renovators, she added. ‘‘All it takes is one speck.’’
Lou's comment: Invisible asbestos fibres can be deadly when doing your own renovations! Leave it to the asbestos removalist to remove any asbestos from your home. It simply is not worth the risk of innocently exposing yourself and family. Asbestos fibres once inhaled can stay dormant for 10 to 40 yrs before you maybe diagnosed with deadly mesothelioma asbestos cancer. It is a very painful, brutal and aggressive cancer!
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As you can above, asbestos is still a huge problem in Australia as it is globally. Take a look below at an article from America - asbestos is A HUGE PROBLEM GLOBALLY NOT JUST IN AUSTRALIA.
14 January 2016 - Florida, USA
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/12/17/19026/upended-america-s-third-wave-asbestos-disease?
Upended by America’s ‘third wave’ of asbestos disease.
Life was going smoothly for Kris Penny. Then he got a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma. Penny is 39 years old. He lives in Clermont, Florida, and has four children.
This is how Kris Penny looked in April 2015:
The surgeon who’d opened up his abdomen had found it full of cancer — type to be determined. The doctor “pretty much told me to get my affairs in order, right there on the spot.”
The pathology results came in four days later. Penny learned that he had peritoneal mesothelioma — a rare cancer of the lining of the abdomen almost always tied to asbestos exposure. He concluded, after consulting with a lawyer, that he’d inhaled microscopic asbestos fibers about a decade earlier while installing fiber-optic cable underground.
The cable was housed in pipe made of asbestos cement.
Lou's comment: Kris Penny got his exposure only 10 years ago after inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers while installing fiber-optic cable underground.
From the time of asbestos exposure, invisible fibres can stay dormant in your body from 10 to 40 years then present as deadly asbestos related diseases such as Mesothelioma (asbestos cancer) or asbestosis (non malignant asbestos cancer). Both of these you would not wish on anyone! Painful and aggressive, asbestos literally takes your breath away as the tumours lay in the linings of your body and gradually join up to form cauliflower like tumours that crush your organs creating unbearable pain, breathing difficulties and leaving you fighting for your life!
Please do not take any risks with asbestos - it simply is not worth it for yourself, family, friends and workmates!
.............................................................................................................................................................
Samuel Michael Gossage, 27, was identified after Department of Environment regulation investigators found a fast food receipt at the dumping site and cross-checked the time of purchase with the eatery's drive-through security cameras. Investigators also checked footage from an onsite concealed camera that captured the incident in June last year.
Gossage was fined this week in Armadale Magistrates Court and was also ordered to pay $1284 in clean-up costs and $660 in court costs.
Lou's comment: Excellent detective work by Department of Environment and following up with heavy fines. Hopefully this will be the start of more dumpers who illegally dispose of asbestos waste being caught, fined and possible jail sentences if appropriate! These dumpers are exposing many innocent people to asbestos fibres when they break down and become airborne. They also have no regard for the health of the general public nor their own health. They think that they will get away with the dumping and save expensive costs of disposing the asbestos waste legally.
..........................................................................................................................................................
21 January 2016, Liverpool, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-20/asbestos-contamination-fears-at-serbian-club-in-liverpool/7102404
Liverpool community fears asbestos contamination from illegal landfill.
A Serbian leader says he is worried about the health of his community members after asbestos was found near a cultural club in Liverpool local government area in south-western Sydney.
David Milovanovic, president of the St Sava Serbian Club in Middleton Grange, told the ABC he had received an email notifying them of soil containing asbestos material on a public property along Hall Circuit.Last year, the ABC reported the EPA was investigating up to 15 sites that could be affected by the contaminated fill, which could have come from Liverpool Council's soil storage facility, the Western Depot at Kemps Creek.
Liverpool councillors passed a motion at an extraordinary meeting in November 2015 to provide medical checks for staff who believe they may have been affected by the contaminated fill.
Mr Milovanovic said he was shocked that there was asbestos in the area.
He said the club had not mowed its lawns for more than four months due to asbestos fears.
"There were rumours of asbestos in the area, so we were concerned," Mr Milovanovic said.
He said the club had suffered financially due to the contamination because they were planning to hold a community festival at the club at the end of January.
"We will have to hold it on the concrete which means we can't fit as many people as before," he said.
"Now we're a little bit afraid if it was contaminated that we may have unknowingly exposed kids.
"On a weekly basis we get between 100 to 150 people, we also host functions for multicultural communities that surround the club, which has between 500 to 600 people."
Mr Milovanovic said he needed support from Liverpool Council and local authorities.
"We can't afford the expensive tests, to test the soil or land around it," he said.
Liverpool Council CEO Carl Wulff said in a statement to the ABC that the asbestos near the Serbian club was dumped illegally.
"The illegally dumped material, located on the corner of Stante Close and Hall Circuit, will be removed immediately after Sydney Water works are completed," Mr Wulff said.
"There is no danger to guests or employees of the club, as the material is covered, not airborne and will be removed by experts."
EPA continuing to investigate the contamination
The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) told the ABC the investigation is continuing into the 15 council work sites.
"In relation to each site under investigation, the EPA has directed the council to make them safe, communicate with any neighbours and remediate them," an EPA spokesperson said.
Liverpool Councillor Peter Ristevski said there were potentially more areas of soil surrounding the club which could be contaminated.
"It's just not one area, they're actually surrounded by soil that could or could not be contaminated," he said.
"They definitely need answers now, if there is a contaminated section there, I'm sure it is contaminated as well."
Cr Ristevski said the council needed to be more proactive to manage the overall asbestos issue.
Asbestos campaigner calls on Liverpool Council to get serious
Barry Robson, president of the Asbestos Diseases Foundation of Australia, said he was outraged that Liverpool Council was not treating the problem as a public hazard.
"The reports I've seen so far leave me a little bit disturbed that the council is treating this in a laissez faire manner, that they don't see it as a hazard," he said.
"The problem is once you disturb asbestos and it does become airborne, that's when it becomes highly, highly dangerous. It raises issues of public safety."
Mr Robson, who has been campaigning for asbestos testing and awareness for years, said solid forms of asbestos are dangerous once they are disturbed.
"The CEO or possibly the council are in denial about this potential safety hazard to the public," he said.
"It's fine to say it's there in solid form but the minute you disturb it, then it becomes highly dangerous.
"If it's in soil and you put a lawnmower over the top of it, it becomes airborne."
.............................................................................................................................................................
19 Jan 2016 - Victoria, Australia
http://www.starweekly.com.au/…/make-asbestos-removal-easier/
A Gisborne woman, who has been fighting mesothelioma for more than a decade, believes home renovators shouldn’t have to pay to have asbestos professionally removed and disposed. Under current laws, people who find the deadly building material in their homes face expensive removal and disposal costs.
Lou Williams, despite her own ill health, has spent many years fighting on behalf of others battling lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure. She says disposal costs should be heavily subsidised. ‘‘Until that happens, we will have more and more people exposed, including their families,’’ Mrs Williams said. In 1985, her father, who worked in the building industry, was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma. He died six months later, aged 54.
In 2003, Mrs Williams, then 47, was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma. In 2009, she was diagnosed also with pleural mesothelioma. Large tumours were removed and she underwent chemotherapy before starting on a new drug early last year.
While asbestos was completely outlawed in 2003, Mrs Williams said it continued to wreak a devastating toll.
And those most at risk were the growing army of do-it-yourself renovators, she added. ‘‘All it takes is one speck.’’
The Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia said repairs and renovations could release millions of fibres.
Lou's comment: Invisible asbestos fibres can be deadly when doing your own renovations! Leave it to the asbestos removalist to remove any asbestos from your home. It simply is not worth the risk of innocently exposing yourself and family. Asbestos fibres once inhaled can stay dormant for 10 to 40 yrs before you maybe diagnosed with deadly mesothelioma asbestos cancer. It is a very painful, brutal and aggressive cancer!
................................................................................................................................................................
As you can above, asbestos is still a huge problem in Australia as it is globally. Take a look below at an article from America - asbestos is A HUGE PROBLEM GLOBALLY NOT JUST IN AUSTRALIA.
14 January 2016 - Florida, USA
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2015/12/17/19026/upended-america-s-third-wave-asbestos-disease?
Upended by America’s ‘third wave’ of asbestos disease.
Life was going smoothly for Kris Penny. Then he got a rare type of cancer called mesothelioma. Penny is 39 years old. He lives in Clermont, Florida, and has four children.
This is how Kris Penny looked in April 2015:
And this is how he looked six months later:
Until September 25, 2014, life was treating him well. His flooring company had just secured its first big contract. That morning, Penny was feeling lethargic and pulled into a McDonald’s for a cup of orange juice. Seconds after he drank it he doubled over in pain. “It felt like someone stabbed me in the stomach with a machete,” he said. A co-worker drove him to the emergency room.
When he awoke in the hospital, his wife, Lori McNamara, was beside him, crying. “I go, ‘What’s the matter? I’m still here,’ ” Penny said.
When he awoke in the hospital, his wife, Lori McNamara, was beside him, crying. “I go, ‘What’s the matter? I’m still here,’ ” Penny said.
The surgeon who’d opened up his abdomen had found it full of cancer — type to be determined. The doctor “pretty much told me to get my affairs in order, right there on the spot.”
The pathology results came in four days later. Penny learned that he had peritoneal mesothelioma — a rare cancer of the lining of the abdomen almost always tied to asbestos exposure. He concluded, after consulting with a lawyer, that he’d inhaled microscopic asbestos fibers about a decade earlier while installing fiber-optic cable underground.
The cable was housed in pipe made of asbestos cement.
Lou's comment: Kris Penny got his exposure only 10 years ago after inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers while installing fiber-optic cable underground.
From the time of asbestos exposure, invisible fibres can stay dormant in your body from 10 to 40 years then present as deadly asbestos related diseases such as Mesothelioma (asbestos cancer) or asbestosis (non malignant asbestos cancer). Both of these you would not wish on anyone! Painful and aggressive, asbestos literally takes your breath away as the tumours lay in the linings of your body and gradually join up to form cauliflower like tumours that crush your organs creating unbearable pain, breathing difficulties and leaving you fighting for your life!
Please do not take any risks with asbestos - it simply is not worth it for yourself, family, friends and workmates!
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